Donavon West, Sidebar Gadget-maestro, is at it again! He just released a brand new Windows Sidebar gadget designed to let users keep track of Olympic Medal wins from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Download: 2008 Beijing Olympics Medal Count Gadget

This is a great gadget for people who aren't following the Olympics very closely but want to keep tabs on Olympic Medal wins. I'm not following the Olympics as closely as I'd like due to several things I'm working on so this Gadget is very helpful in at least keeping me "in the loop".

You can also watch encore videos of the Olympics at NBCOlympics.com thanks to a partnership with MSN Video and are presented in Silverlight. Also: don't forget you can also watch Olympic content directly within Windows Media Center on PCs running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate. I posted about NBC Olympics On The Go a few weeks ago here. I hear TVTonic has released a 64-bit version of NBC Olympics On The Go as well.

If you’ve switched to Ubuntu from Windows, there’s a very good chance that the security failings of Windows featured in your decision. By any measure, Microsoft’s record on security within its products is appalling. A new and serious security warning appears seemingly on an ongoing basis, and a new and devastating virus makes news headlines with similar frequency (usually described as “a PC virus” rather than what it actually is: a Windows virus).

One argument is that Windows is the target of so many viruses merely because it’s so popular. Although it’s true that some of the underground crackers who write viruses dislike Microsoft, there’s also little doubt that Windows has more than its fair share of security issues.

The situation is certainly getting better but, even so, Microsoft’s latest operating system, provides many good examples of why it’s an easy target. Upon installation, the default user is given root powers. True, a handful of tasks can be performed only by the genuine administrator, but the default user can configure hardware, remove system software, and even wipe every file from the hard disk, if he pleases. Of course, you would never intentionally damage your own system, but computer attackers use various techniques to get you to run malicious software (by pretending it’s a different file, for example) or by simply infecting your computer across the Internet without your knowledge, which is how most worms work.

Viruses and worms also usually take advantage of security holes within Windows software. As just one example, a famous security hole within Outlook Express allowed a program attached to an e-mail message to run when the user simply clicked a particular message to view it. In other words, infecting a Windows machine was as easy as sending someone an e-mail message!

It’s a different story with Linux. Viruses and worms are far rarer than they are on Windows. In fact, the total number of viruses and worms that have been found in the wild infecting Linux systems number far less than 100 (one report published in 2003 put the number at 40, and the number is unlikely to have grown much since then). Compare that to Windows, where according to the Sophos antivirus labs (www.sophos.com), approximately 1,000 new viruses are discovered every month! The Sophos antivirus product now guards against just under 100,000 viruses.

But while I would love to say that security holes are not found on Linux, the sad truth is that they’re a fact of life for users of every operating system. Many so-called rootkits are available, generated by members of underground cracking groups. These are specialized software toolkits that aim to exploit holes within the Linux operating system and its software. All Linux users should spend time defending their system and never assume that they’re safe.

Source Of Information : Beginning Ubuntu Linux - From Novice To Professional

Getting rid of the GRUB boot menu delay can save some waiting around in the early stages of the boot process. The delay can be reduced to a second, or even eradicated completely. Of course, in such a case, you won’t be able to choose which operating system you want to load if you’re dual-booting with Windows. Even if Ubuntu is the only operating system on your computer, without the boot delay, you won’t have the chance to boot into recovery mode, as offered on the GRUB menu. So you need to consider whether this is a worthwhile time-saving measure.

The boot menu delay is stated in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file. You can load this into the Gedit text editor by typing the following:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Look for the line that begins with timeout, and change the value to whatever you wish. The units are counted in seconds, so a value of 3 equates to three seconds. A value of zero (0) will mean the boot menu won’t appear at all. Generally speaking, a delay of a second (1) gives you just enough time to hit a key at the appropriate time, and this will then cancel the countdown, meaning the boot menu will stay on your screen until you select an option.

When you’ve finished, save the file and quit Gedit.

If you think you’ve seen what’s possible with Photosynth, then you’ve seen nothing yet. The collaborative research team from the University of Washington and Microsoft Research who only two years ago in 2006 published their paper “Photo Tourism” and their technology demonstration “Photosynth” have again pushed the boundaries of what can be achieved by intuitively processing the abundance of digital images shared on the web.

This week at SIGGRAPH 2008 they’re sharing with the world some even better technology they’ve been working on which they call “Finding Paths through the World’s Photos“. Don’t let the name fool you, it’s damn cool. If you’re not much of a reading person like me, take a look at this video demonstration. (Watch it till the end)

This technology is much better than Photosynth simply because instead of just presenting individual photographs in a cool 3D environment, it actually manipulates the photo to give you a seamless and more lifelike experience. It’s one thing to click around different photos taken at a particular museum, it’s a whole other story to “walk through” the museum.

Now if you want to know exactly how they did it, and you’re a rocket scientist, take a look at their conference paper. For the rest of us, just take it for granted.

msnbc.com Breaking News is one of the latest malspam messages to spread malware through a Fake Flash Player download.

The CNN malspam message that we reported on a previous post has evolved into using other popular news network subject lines to sneak in a new version of the same type of malspam message. This time the spammers are using the title “msnbc.com Breaking News” as the headliner which is sure to get more computer users attention.

The mxlab blog was one of the first sources to enlighten or warn computer users of this new malspam threat. In their post they go onto explain how this new “msnbc.com BREAKING NEWS” message contains a URL that leads to a malicious site that has a CNN video report but asks you to download a Flash player in the form of the file adobe_flash.exe. Does this sound familiar? It should because we believe it is the same group of spammers that are changing the latest series of the CNN Trojan messages or malspam to exhibit a new catchy title.

Do you ever get those “Breaking News” emails when something big in the news has recently happened?

The last legitimate “Breaking News” message I received was the passing of Isaac Hayes from CNN.com. Many of you are probably like me, you want to be notified of breaking news and if you get an email titled “Breaking News” you are probably going to open that message and click on a link within the body of the email. If you do that with the new “msnbc.com BREAKING NEWS” malspam message then it will redirect you to a malicious site that may ask you to download a fake Flash player just like in the CNN.com Daily Top 10 malspam message.

Below is an mxlab example of the “msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS” message and embedded linking:

Google launches free music downloads in China
Plane crashes into prep school, hundreds of kids killed
Please give your opinions for change
US Dollar hits 6-year high, further gains expected

msnbc.com: BREAKING NEWS: Google launches free music downloads in China
Find out more at http://breakingnews.msnbc.com
======================================================
See the top news of the day at MSNBC.com, and the latest from Today Show and NBC Nightly News.
=========================================
This e-mail is never sent unsolicited. You have received this MSNBC Breaking News Newsletter
newsletter because you subscribed to it or, someone forwarded it to you.
To remove yourself from the list (or to add yourself to the list if this
message was forwarded to you) simply go to
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50903113 , select unsubscribe, enter the
email address receiving this message, and click the Go button.
Microsoft Corporation - One Microsoft Way - Redmond, WA 98052
MSN PRIVACY STATEMENT
http://privacy.msn.com (http://privacy.msn.com/> )

msnbc.com – BREAKING NEWS malspam message Update: It was confirmed by MX Logic that the new msnbc.com – BREAKING NEWS malspam messages are using uncanny subject lines. Below are a few examples of the subject lines used.

• msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Americans love law suits for breakfast
• msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Bomb scare grounds thousands of flights at UK Heathrow airport
• msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Copycat murderer beheads woman on Greyhound bus
• msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: I will be suing you
• msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Mary-Kate Olsen implicated in Heath Ledger’s death
• msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Sandwich recall amid Salmonella outbreak

Note: You should delete any message with the same subject line as those listed above in an effort to avoid getting infected by a Trojan.

The fake Flash Player is pushed onto computer users through an ActiveX error message as shown in the image below.

Malspam Tip: We should note that these messages will probably not stop any time soon. We expect them to change into different variations mainly because the recent malspam messages are working well for spammers by infecting a wide range of people around the world. What works for the spammer is usually something that we see more of in the future. If you get a message with the subject line “msnbc.com BREAKING NEWS” please use caution. As Adobe.com has already stated, do not ever download a Flash Player from another site other than Adobe.com.